Pay-for-Play Plan Stayed by LAUSD : Lockout: Community groups gain a reprieve when user fees are delayed for an additional month.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is seeking funding from within that would allow community groups to use its facilities for free until Sept. 1, when a user-fee plan is scheduled to take effect.

Sports teams and civic groups could be using district sites for free by as early as next week, a district representative said Friday.

If funds can be located to pay personnel to supervise campus sites, schools will be reopened to all groups that previously had their use permits revoked.

On Sept. 1, the district’s user-fee plan will be implemented and groups will be required to pay an hourly rate to use athletic or classroom facilities.

“There was a lot of concern from affected groups that this decision was sprung on them,” said Don Wertz, the district’s recreation director. “People felt they didn’t have sufficient time to gear up for it (financially).”

At a public hearing last Wednesday at district headquarters, representatives from several athletic and community organizations stepped forward to decry the district’s failure to provide lead time on the user-fee plan.

Most said that their groups had long since finalized budgets for the year and had no funds left to pay user fees.

Wertz said that Assistant Superintendent Sid Thompson--who fielded questions at the meeting and has been charged with putting the user-fee plan in place--later agreed to seek funding that would buy the groups more time.

The user fees initially were scheduled to be in place by Aug. 1. The new proposal allows groups to use the sites in the interim and to begin raising funds for when the fee structure becomes effective.

Last month, the L.A. Board of Education slashed funding for high school youth services coordinators and directed Student Auxiliary Services to make the positions self-sufficient. Effective July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year, funds for the positions were eliminated and campuses were locked while the pay-for-play plan was formulated.

Thompson’s stopgap funds would allow the Student Auxiliary Services department to rehire on-campus youth services coordinators to supervise district facilities.

The decision to allow a grace period marks the second time the district has given ground to community groups on the user-fee issue.

At the meeting Wednesday, Thompson announced that the district would absorb custodial costs for nonprofit groups wishing to use its sites. Under a preliminary user-fee proposal, custodial fees of as much as $480 would have been charged for the use of large athletic venues. An hourly rate also would have applied.

Wertz said he expects to receive word from Thompson next week that emergency funding has been found, whereupon Wertz will begin informing schools that youth services personnel may be reinstated.

Wertz estimated that the district needs to locate $100,000 to pay youth services personnel through the grace period.

On Sept. 1, however, hourly rates for nonprofit groups are scheduled to begin.

Rates unveiled Wednesday include a $13.38 hourly fee for a baseball diamond, $21.03 for a large high school gym and $13.73 for a large soccer field. Multipurpose rooms run from $20-22 per hour.

Fees will be required in advance and groups will have to reapply for use permits.